The sport of snowboarding has become increasingly popular not only in the United States but also around the world. When utilizing a snowboard, an individual places both of his or her feet on the upper surface of the snowboard. The user's footwear is maintained in fixed position on the snowboard by bindings which securely hold the footwear in place and prevent relative movement between the snowboard and the footwear. Snowboard bindings differ from those employed in connection with skis in a number of respects, one of the most significant differences being that ski bindings allow release of the user's foot upon application of outside forces such as those caused by impact or other source of stress forces. Snowboards, on the other hand, conventionally provide release only when the user manually releases the bindings at the location of the snowboard. While impact releases for snowboards have been proposed, they are characterized by their relative complexity. Nor do such impact releases effectively solve the problem this invention addresses--ready and reliable release of a snowboard binding manually from a location spaced from the snowboard. Snowboard binding impact releases are not generally desirable in any event since they can result in only a single foot being released, which can cause injury.
The requirement that prior art snowboard bindings must be released manually at the snowboard itself has resulted in injury to and death of snowboarders under certain circumstances. For example, snowboarders have died when covered by snow due to their inability to release the snowboard bindings. Such a predicament is fairly common and is not limited to a snowboarder being buried by an avalanche. Snowboarders can be, and are, buried simply due to the fact that powder or other treacherous snow conditions are encountered. The snowboarder can be entombed because he or she cannot release the snowboard. Impact releases do not provide a reliable means for effecting separation under such circumstances.
The following United States patents are believed to be representative of the state of the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,339, issued Feb. 26, 1974, U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,913, issued Sep. 29, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,868, issued Jan. 22, 1974, U.S. Pat. No. 3,246,907, issued Apr. 19, 1966, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,890, issued Jul. 9, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,146, issued Feb. 26, 1985, U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,411, issued Apr. 24, 1984, U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,453, issued Feb. 4, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,714, issued Jul. 28, 1981, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,610, issued May 9, 1967.
As can be seen with reference to the above-noted patents, a variety of binding systems exist for skis and snowboards. Many such systems are impact-actuated, that is, the bindings will release responsive to forces applied at the bindings of a certain magnitude and character. While some of the patents suggest the use of remotely actuated binding releases, the mechanisms disclosed are not appropriate for or applicable to snowboards. Such systems may, for example, lack the degree of reliability one would wish for under numerous situations. Prior art ski binding releases and snowboard impact-type binding releases are also generally characterized by their relative complexity and high expense.